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Just checked my presenter's login page and our two workshops at NECC2009 are now scheduled!

These are both fee-required 3 hour workshops, one for "n00bs" and one for "experienced users only" and they're limited to 30 participants each, so hurry on out there and get registered for the conference then get your housing (filling up fast!) and sometime in mid-February, when the workshop program is announced, go back online and get registered for the workshop that fits your needs! I'll remind you here once the schedule is public!

Daniel Livingstone produces "Learning Games," the prolific blog that is currently the "Blog-o-the-Month" at ISTE Island's "Blogger's Hut," the little property my Second Life avatar (Scottmerrick Oh) manages for ISTE. A recent post of his, entitled "Do Students Like Technology X? Do they need to?" illustrates the incisive nature of his thought and regular "shareout."

In it, he cites Judy Robertson at Heriot-Watt University, in Edinburgh, UK, who has recently made comments on Virtual World Watch discussing the results of a survey she took of her first and second year computer programming students about their attitudes concerning Second Life. The students' opinions go some distance toward helping understand the puzzling demographic of Second Life, one which puts the average age (and the most active age group) of SL users somewhere around 41 (according to the most recent study I could find). Students reported reluctantly appreci…

Okay, my last proud dad harangue here! I PROMISE! Basically, if you're reading this within a drive's-reach of Nashville, come see this play! My humble review:

The opening performance of Nashville Shakespeare Festival's production of The Tragedy of Richard the Third last night had my family laughing out loud and helped me understand aspects of the play I never "got" before. According to USN dad (and NashShakes founder) Donald Caparella, Denise Hicks' Vaudeville-lensed production allows at least one character who is almost universally cut from the play's performance to stand out in hilarious ways; and the frequently show-bizzy performances contrast just right with the unsettling tragedies of murder, especially those of the two princes, to make the tragedy work right along with the comedy.

Historically, the play's twisted plot is a bit hard to follow, but there's a wonderful device used to help you keep score of the murders. It's amazingly simple a…

It's opening night! Can't WAIT to see the whole play, though I'll of course be focused on me boy-o as Young York.

In other news, I had a wonderful chat--along with USN Tech Director Kathy Weiczerza and Middle School Tech Coordinator Jake Wilson, after school yesterday--with 8 or 10 parents of USN 7th graders, on the topic of Teenagers and the Internet. In preparation for that, I created a free wiki at http://usn7thparentsnight.wikispaces.com to use as both a presentation tool and as a repository for further dialog. Please feel free to visit that site and use the "Edit this page" link on any page to which you'd like to contribute (especially the "Questions" and the "Comments" pages!

Thanks to the parents who came by. This was truly an enjoyable experience for me, since I'm one of you. I'm all to familiar with how challenging it can be for a parent, even one as geeky as I, to keep up with socio-technological change and I deeply apprec…

After a wild holiday break, visited by fire, flood, power outage due to falling trees, and illness-- blessed by visiting loved ones and their two golden retrievers who joined our own minor league menagerie of one big black dog and one odd little cat--we had a lovely on-demand (by the birthday boy) dinner last night. We started with a salad with baby leaf lettuce, goats' cheese, and apples. The main course was a lovely "from scratch" fettucini alfredo with chicken marsala and peas with baby onions. Miranda had spent the afternoon baking a wonderful Red Velvet sheet cake, and we added in some vanilla ice cream for dessert. Just before dessert, Colin opened his few presents, culminating in a little box wrapped up with earplugs. Thanks to friend Jon Elliot and his sweet wife Loren, Colin opened the box and found two tickets to the January ACDC concert January 31st at the Sommet Center here in Nashville. Yay!

About Me

I really do consider myself as much of a learner as a teacher. Partly that's because my main professional interest is educational technology, and I've been lucky enough to fall in with some movers and shakers in that arena, many of whom I consider friends, all of whom I consider colleagues.